Maya Pennington and the Hive!
Come… Hear… Fall in Love!
At 6:00 P.M. this Thursday, August 4, at the Lithuanian Jewish Community (Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius)
About Maya
Singer, actress, composer.
Born in Jerusalem, Maya began learning music when she was 5. She graduated from the Ruben Academy for music and dance High School (majoring in Baroque flute), later studyied jazz voice and multi-disciplinary composition at the Academy of Music and Rimon. In order to supplement her acting training, she took part in courses held by Sadna’ot Habama with teachers from the Royal Academy of Music and Guildford and with teachers specializing in various acting methods. She toured internationally with the a cappella group Voca People (2009-2013), and performed as a soloist with a wide variety of performances, ranging from several performances with the Be’er Sheva sinfonietta to the international Red Sea Jazz Festival 2008, the Jerusalem Jazz Festival 2006, etc. and as a recording artist on several albums, including Ittai Rosenbaum’s “Between Waters and Waters” (2009).
Maya currently lives in Tel Aviv, where she continues to sing, write and teach.
About Maya‘s connection to Lithuania and Yiddish
My maternal grandparents were born in Lithuania. They came from two small villages called Rokiškis (Rákeshik) and Virbalis (Virbaln) and emigrated to South Africa in the 20s to seek a better future, as did many others from my family. Those of our relatives who didn’t emigrate perished in the Holocaust, save for a meagre few.
Three years ago, while on a roots trip with my mother, sister and aunt and a group of South African Jews, we visited Vilnius for the first time and learned about the local heritage and community, traveling from Poland to Lithuania and ending in Latvia. After the trip came to an end, my family returned to Vilnius and we spent the last two days driving to the villages where my grandparents had grown up. Just hours before flying back home, my aunt and I happened upon the first day of the Yiddish summer school, a truly inspiring experience!
Since then I have been dreaming to come back here and take part in the summer school program, which I have finally been able to do this year.
I am deeply moved by the dedication and commitment this community has to further establish its identity, commemorate its dead and nurture its living. I feel very lucky to take a small part in the revival of Yiddish and bear witness to the good work you are doing and am happy to share my music with you, since it is the most healing, powerful and international language I know.